Or just a crude way to bump up Bing? Presumable its searches use it?
Microsoft’s so.cl network now open to all
Microsoft’s “experiment in open search”, so.cl, is now open to anyone. Launched back in May amidst very little fanfare, so.cl (pronounced “social “) was initially offered only to students and billed as an experiment in learning. Redmond has recanted those restrictions, today telling world+dog they’re free to pile in and enjoy …
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Wednesday 5th December 2012 02:15 GMT johnnytruant
I have an account there
Have had since day one. I'm not a student, not sure why I got invited.
My impression six months ago was that it was confusing and weird and didn't work properly and I wasn't sure at all what the point of it was. I just loaded it up and it has done nothing to change my mind.
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Wednesday 5th December 2012 04:06 GMT LinkOfHyrule
so.cl (pronounced “social “)
Sorry but I insist on pronouncing it "sockle" and no amount of embarrassing PR by Microsoft will change that!
A bit like how I overhead two blokes in a shop the other week - one said to other "I don't use Google, I use Bing!" I nearly pissed myself, just the way he said it so enthusiastically, like he was in TV advert for Microsoft or something! It's not cool to admit things like that in public dude!
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Wednesday 5th December 2012 08:38 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: so.cl (pronounced “social “)
@LinkOfHyrule
Bloody right mate. If a PR drone invents a word and by default we need to have it "explained" how clever s/he's been, then it's not actually clever after all and I'll pronounce it as I see fit!
I too will stick with my first impression and continue to call it "sockle". Better yet, I might just ignore it completely.
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Wednesday 5th December 2012 08:08 GMT Anonymous Coward
It doesn't work...
My main gripe with so.cl when I first tried it was a huge amount of info pollution. Dunno if they fixed that in between, but it got me pretty annoyed.
I searched for some topic and all of a sudden people started tagging / adding totally unrelated stuff to those topics. And of course without any way for me, the 'owner' of said search, to do anything about it. Or so it seemed.
It was very confusing, and I didn't quite enjoy the ride. One thing was fun though; a quick chat with someone else about a certain programming topic. But alas; that's not why I'd use a "social restricted search machine".
I do wonder; if its now "open" then why can't anyone simply start a search without logging in ? You know; to see what this is all about.
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Wednesday 5th December 2012 12:16 GMT turnip handler
But where do I get a cool t-shirt??
My fav bit from the about page: http://www.so.cl/about
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How do I get the cool Socl t-shirt I see in many of your profile pictures?
Socl t-shirts are available for purchase here.
http://www.zazzle.com/soclfuselabs
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Did anyone really ask that??
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Wednesday 5th December 2012 13:57 GMT andy 103
Presenting (uninteresting) content
The problem with this - and many other sites like it - is that they just aggregate and then present boring content uploaded by boring people.
These sites don't particularly "do" anything. What would be novel is if someone could come up with some smart algorithms for filtering out rubbish automatically - without manual moderation - and then give the best search results to users based on their search. I'm yet to see a site which does this properly.